Over the past week, I seem to have become both a bum and a wimp.

Ending last Monday, I had company in my house for two weeks straight... and after they had all gone home, all I wanted to do was sit in front of the fire and read. Or doze, more likely.

The problem with that is that this lasted the entire week... night after night, that's all I wanted to do after work. Sit. Read. Avoid responsibility. Deny real-life realities. Eat frozen dinners. Binge on gluten-free cookies (yes, that really happened... today).

Not until last night did I do anything really productive. And even so, I still stayed up too late reading afterwards...

I've also gotten to the point that I'm still running my heater and my fireplace to keep warm - even though it's in the sixties and seventies during the day. Before this warmer weather surprised us with the hope of spring, I had been so careful to ration my propane for my fireplace, to take care that I wasn't running my space heaters excessively. I could walk around barefoot and be amused at the fact that my house was chilly - even be proud of the fact that I could handle the cold and NOT turn on the heat to save money.

But I turned into a wimp overnight. I've come home every night this week, felt a slight chill in the air, and turned the fireplace on lickety-split. I guess it could be due to the fact that I thought I was coming down with something. At least that's what I'll use as my excuse for the depleted propane tank and higher electric bill next month.

Maybe I'll get out of this slump and recover from my lazy, wimpy week this weekend. Or maybe it will extend a few more days... I'll have to wait and see.

Some thoughts...

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

         ~Colossians 2:2-3~

So many have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. And yet, if their search does not begin or end with Christ, they remain utterly unsatisfied. In light of Christ being the ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge, don't you find it ironic that so many of the professors in our institutions of higher learning ignore Him?

 Beginning the search for knowledge with Him allows a person to have a reference point for the lessons they learn, as they learn them. They can build upon the foundation of their faith in Him, and can learn to incorporate the Truth into their daily life as they experience it. However, if you have searched the world over and end by discovering Christ as the ultimate Truth, how awesome is that realization and the relief to find the quest concluded!  In this case, perhaps the mind is more at rest, knowing that every corner has been searched, every book opened, every religious system sounded for Truth, and that Truth is now truly, quite finally, found. 

Origin Olympics

One more thing about Origin... The author is giving away awesome prizes (including a Jaguar adoption!) as part of the Origin Olympics!!! Click here to check it out!

Origin by Jessica Khoury

I was first exposed to Jessica Khoury's Origin as a beta reader last summer. I can honestly say that I couldn't stop reading this book. I'm pretty sure I read it in two sittings, and that was only because I was out of town and needed to socialize a bit! This book's beautiful story-telling is interwoven with deep questions of immortality and morality. I would highly recommend this book to young adult readers, and to anyone who enjoys a good, thought-provoking story! You can read more about the author here.

Hope

A tentative hope

A timid dream

A dreamful prayer

A reticent thought

A rosebud

Will it burst into full bloom?

Will it reveal itself slowly, sweetly, deliberately?

Will it ever really bloom -

Spreading its sweet scent to any and all surrounding?

A sweet longing

A wordless prayer

A crazy dream

A wild hope

Donne

One of my favorite of John Donne's sonnets:

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit You, but O, to no end;
Reason, your victory in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Untitled

I've never been to Paris
And I've never been a queen
I've never seen my face
In one of those glamour magazines

But I've heard tales of a Kingdom
A Kingdom truly sublime
Of a Beauty, a Worth untold by men
And I've been told it's mine

A worth not measured by scales
Or by the jewels found therein
No, this Kingdom's worth's intrinsic
It's worth's instilled by Him

So I may never go to Paris
And I'll never be a queen
But I'm an heiress in truth & grace
Of a Kingdom that can't be seen